André Villas-Boas says he has the complete backing of Roman Abramovich and Chelsea's players, despite his nightmare start at Stamford Bridge. Villas-Boas dismissed suggestions that his lack of experience necessitated the appointment of an older coach to work alongside him, such as Guus Hiddink.

"I don't agree with that," he said, and insisted he and his current staff would solve Chelsea's problems. "I don't solve problems on my own. I solve them with my group of people and my group of players. I'm not a religious person so I just hold on to my self-belief and the belief in my players' talents."

Villas-Boas shrugged off the mounting pressure on him following the Blues' worst beginning to a campaign since Abramovich bought the club eight years ago. Asked if the Russian owner had promised to give him time to turn things around, he said simply: "Yes."

Villas-Boas refused to go into more detail about their conversation but added: "Everybody wants to get out of a situation like this."

The Portuguese appeared drained after Wednesday night's defeat against Bayer Leverkusen but looked confident and relaxed under the watchful eye of the chairman, Bruce Buck, who made a surprise appearance at the club's press conference to preview Saturday's game against Wolves.

Villas-Boas said he had not expected to see himself on the back pages of newspapers, despite the mounting pressure on him. And he denied reports of angry exchanges during a meeting of players and staff on Thursday. "Not critical meetings, no animosity, not insults here and there, no critique whatsoever regarding what we are doing, no doubts whatsoever regarding what we are doing," he said.

"Self-confidence and self-belief is what we need now and everybody wants to get it. That thing only comes with wins."

Chelsea's mental strength was questioned this week by their former midfielder Michael Ballack. Villas-Boas said: "Michael is always very self-opinionated. I disagree with him. He doesn't live in this dressing room. He used to live here before and he didn't solve all the problems before."

Asked what he thought had gone wrong in what had been a run of four defeats from seven games, Villas-Boas said: "When you are hyped up emotionally and when you have more confidence, things go better for you.

"A negative streak of results can be explained by emotional states and it could be just that. So we need to find the right emotional stimulus, plus the right balance in terms of what we do to get the results that we want. It could be just around the corner."

Three of those defeats all came late on in matches and Villas-Boas said: "There is the so-called Fergie time and Manchester United seems very successful in making the most out of that time. In football, you just have to get the focus right in those last minutes."

The Portuguese said Chelsea were in a "life and death" situation in the Champions League and the same could be said about their Premier League challenge. Failure to beat Wolves could mean they drop to seventh place by the end of the weekend, although victory might send them as high as third.

"Every game gives you an opportunity to get back on track and that's exactly our focus," said Villas-Boas.